BLOG PARTY….I’m a little groggy this morning. Last night I drove up to Laurel Canyon for a party at Brian Linse’s place in honor of Perry deHavilland and Adriana Cronin, who were in town visiting.
In addition to Brian, I got to reconnect with several people I’ve met before, including Armed Liberal, Ann Salisbury, and Martin Devon, and met several local bloggers for the first time, including Matt Welch, Bill Whittle, Steve Smith, Howard Owens, and (ever so briefly) Cathy Seipp.
Here’s a news flash: bloggers sure can talk. And argue. About anything.
But you knew that. I watched a couple of guys almost come to blows over the question of whether the media is biased (conclusion: either yes or no, depending), and then joined a conversation with some folks who really know California politics. This stuff always amazes me. Before I started blogging, I kept up with things the usual way: I read the paper, skimmed some magazines, watched occasional TV news, etc. But these guys really keep up with policies, with personalities, and with unbelievable levels of minutiae. I just listened. The only real conclusion seemed to be that Phil Angelides is a comer. You heard it here first.
And that Matt Welch fellow is sure a pretty interesting guy. I was wondering how he ended up in Prague in the early 90s, and the answer turned out to be, more or less, that he had a dead end job at the time and just decided that Prague was a happening place. So he saved up some money and flew over, thinking maybe something would turn up.
That’s either really dumb or really fascinating, and I vote for the latter. Besides, he also got a wife out of the deal.
Unfortunately, my hearing isn’t so great, and after an hour or two at loud parties I have a hard time following conversations, which means I only followed bits and pieces after about 11:00. However, the others picked up the slack, and unlike me, they have the foghorn voices to cut through the din, so I guess it all worked out.
And I learned that even at 2:00 am there’s a fair amount of traffic on I-5. It just never ends.
